How We got Started with Home Instead Senior Care

"I hate losing Anita," Mom said while wringing her hands in her lap. "What if I can't find a good caregiver in Albuquerque?"

The question caught me off-guard because I hadn't given this particular issue any thought. When I
made the decision last year to move back to my adopted hometown, I didn't devote a single second to the issue of getting Mom a new caregiver. I figured Mom realized we would just ring up Home Instead Senior Care® when we got back to Albuquerque, and voila! A delightful and competent CAREGiverSM like Anita would magically appear. But now I could see that Mom did not view the situation this way, at all. Having an excellent caregiver is extremely important to her, and she worries it may be difficult to find someone who meets her standards. After all, Albuquerque is a much smaller city than Houston.

It's true the process of finding the "just right" caregiver can take a bit of time. Such was the case when Mom and I initially set up service here in Houston. In order to relieve some of Mom's anxiety, I recounted the steps we went through when we first partnered with Home Instead for her care and reminded her it would work the same way in Albuquerque.

When Mom first moved in with Lee and me in 2013, we were already discussing the possibility of professional caregiving for Mom. Eventually she reached a point where she could not safely get in and out of the shower, and she didn't feel comfortable having me help her with that. It's not exactly that she was being modest; she felt that asking me to help her shower represented an undue burden on me.

At her request, I placed a call to Home Instead Senior Care. What a great decision it was. A representative from the local office, Sharon, came out within a day to assess Mom's situation. Sharon seemed genuinely interested in knowing who Mom is as a person. She wanted to know where Mom had grown up, what kinds of foods she liked, what time she arose in the morning and, of course, what types of medical and mobility issues Mom was experiencing.

A few days later, on the date we requested, Sharon introduced Mom to her first Home Instead Senior Care CAREGiver. Mom wanted someone a bit more chatty than that first CAREGiver, so we requested someone new. After a couple of tries, Home Instead sent Anita—and the rest is history. Anita not only provides gentle personal care, but she provides a wealth of congenial social contact. It's a good match, indeed.

As I reminded Mom of the steps we'd gone through to find Anita, she felt comforted that we will be able to go through the same sequence of events to find her a good CAREGiver with Home Instead Senior Care of Albuquerque.

I love the fact I can give Mom peace-of-mind by relying on the peace-of-mind Home Instead Senior Care gives me. It's one less thing I have to worry about as I manage the million details related to Mom and this upcoming move